Windows XP SP2

Well after downloading Windows XP SP2 a couple of weeks back and burning it, I've finally had a chance to install and review this major update for Windows XP. First the size is very large so if you plan on downloading it you better have broadband since it weighs in at almost 500 MB (or under 300MB compressed).

You can download this service pack from MSDN if you have an MSDN subscription, otherwise Microsoft prefers that you use Windows Update to install this or you can download this at Microsoft.com (Click Here).

Personally for me the installation went very smooth. The largest improvement this service pack provides is an enhanced client firewall. I really like this feature and recommend leaving it on even if you have a hardware firewall. The next biggest improvement is for Internet Explorer and it now contains a pop-up blocker, FINALLY!!!

Some people have reported problems however and had to reinstall Windows entirely so I'd backup you first, although admittedly I didn't.

BugTracker Status Aug '04

Progress is going well on BugTracker. Base security for it is written, 90% of the database complete. Much web GUI still needs to be fleshed out however, I still need graphics. I have finished writing a basic cascading stylesheet for the system though.

Only major issue I've faced is a Cookie-Session based problem. PHP isn't storing my state how I want it to and I believe it has to do with the lifecycle of a PHP script and thus my Cookie-Headers are not being passed to the client, thus session id not being stored. I feel I am close to a resolution on this issue.

Email me if you'd like to help me on this project.

PHP 5.0 Released

Major PHP release is final.... so.... what's the verdict? I don't know. Doesn't work on Windows yet. Although setup and compressed archives are available for PHP 5.0, I encountered several parsing problems, particularly with the PEAR & PEAR DB libraries that I use.

FYI: PEAR DB is a PHP database abstraction layer.

I'll wait for a fix for PHP 5.0 or a version of PEAR that works with the new version before I test drive the new engine.

Among the new features on PHP 5.0 are:

• Zend Engine II with a new object model and dozens of new features
• XML support has been rewritten
• New SimpleXml extensions
• New built-in SOAP extensions (for interop with web services)
• New MySql extensions
• SQLite is bundled with this version of PHP
• Improvements to streams

and reportedly more...